A VERY FULL AND INVIGORATING SCHEDULE

Since returning from London life has progressed at a pace. Before travelling down the crocuses in our lawn were only just fractionally appearing as green tips, yet on return they were in full bloom. During the latter part of February there have been many more signs of spring and I have been able to complete a range of maintenance tasks to get the garden looking a lot healthier and tidier.

Feedback following my shows continues to grow and encourage me. Having been moved to establish a ‘track of the month’ slot,it was so good to note that The L Project’s single that I selected as the first one reached number eleven in the UK charts. For March I have opted to play both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides of the new single due to be released by Where’s George? Having made that decision I was privileged to be able to sit in during a rehearsal session and hear two excellent new songs. They just get better and better ever time that I hear them; and the listener ‘stats’ certainly shot up around the time when I was playing their two songs!

When in London I had recorded a number of video sequences as I walked about Camden and approached and boarded a Clipper. I had done this with a view to experimenting further with Windows Live Movie Maker. On returning I managed to produce two short videos, one backed with a Where’s George? track and the other with an Easter Street track. Although very basic, I was fairly pleased with them. Immediately after uploading to YouTube I received notification that both had been blocked due to a claim that I had violated visual content claimed as copyright by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations); given that all footage had been shot by me when in public places, and nowhere near any football grounds, I was absolutely astounded but quickly located a dispute form – after I submitted these claiming that there was no basis behind UEFA’s claim, the videos were instantly unblocked. It seems clear that the blocking/dispute procedures must be completely automated at YouTube; interestingly I had posted the videos on March 1st, the day that Google’s new privacy policy came into effect.

Since then, I have continued to play about with the camera – it’s so great to be allowed to use local band tracks as backing for my experiments; evermore ambitious (but still extremely amateurish).

The weekend saw me driving over to Glasgow with Colleen and Ellen to see the astounding Gotye in concert, a very unexpected pleasure as I hadn’t planned it, only going when Phil couldn’t make use of his ticket.

On Tuesday I was left in charge of the studio while Kyle and Oscar travelled up to the Scottish Parliament for a meeting about the future of Community Radio in Scotland, this allowed me to be able to sit in on Fiona’s ‘Big Boots & Celtic Roots’, what a joy.

Yesterday I watched two extremely moving and inspirational videos. One was in promotion of an internet campaign to seek to have a Ugandan arrested for crimes against humanity as a result of years of violations against children, including forcing many to be child soldiers. Since then the internet traffic in support of the campaign has been growing rapidly with over 2 million people currently ‘liking’ the main FaceBook page. The main aim is to make Joseph Kony famous so that he can no longer hide behind a ‘cloak of invisibility’, and in so doing maintain pressure on governments to do what they can to petition for his arrest. The other was a play performed by a number of well known actors. The play was closely based on testimony in a Californian trial that had not been allowed to be broadcast. I found it rather ironic that the USA which appears to seek to broadcast ‘everything’ was so keen to keep these proceedings from the public. I’m sure that the move has backfired in much the same way as when Ryan Giggs attempted to gag the media last year over his affair. The trial was concerned with Proposition 8 which attempts to eliminate the rights of same-sex couples to marry; the publicity generated by the airing of this play is surely going to give the issue much more prominence than would have resulted if the original trial had been shown.

All the time I am pursuing this wide range of activities it is so good to also see Winnie’s jewellery making progressing in leaps and bounds. That means that there are a few more displays to help her prepare for, but that’s not a problem, it’s just a pleasure to help.

Today I donned my suit for the first time in ages and attended an interview, it was a very formal one involving pre-intimated scenarios and a panel of three, but as it was for a voluntary position I found it all rather relaxing and enjoyable.